Yesterday, Jim Rubens, candidate for U.S. Senate, visited with youth leaders from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Turkey and other countries in the region to talk about American foreign policy. The meeting titled "Advancing Youth Engagement and Leadership", was held at Southern New Hampshire University and covered in today's Union Leader. Syria was a major topic at the meeting.

Rubens, who has been critical of Jeanne Shaheen's September 4, 2013 vote to rubber stamp President Obama's Syria bombing war, stated that direct US military engagement in Syria would entail deployment of American boots on the ground. Shaheen is now trying to say that the war resolution would not have required American combat forces on the ground.

"For Jeanne Shaheen to say that her Syrian bombing war would have required no boots on the ground is patently false," said Rubens.

As reported in the New York Times, the Pentagon had clearly informed the Obama Administration that, if the Assad regime were destabilized by a bombing campaign, 75,000 American ground troops would be required to maintain control over Syrian chemical weapons stockpiles and to prevent rebel and jihadi forces such as Hezbollah or ISIS from gaining access.

Rubens further states:

"It is clear that, much like her vote for Obamacare, Jeanne Shaheen either did not understand what she was voting for or is misleading the American people regarding the consequences of her vote.

“Jeanne Shaheen’s bombing war would have degraded U.S. national security, killed and maimed more innocent women and children, increased regional instability and sectarian killings, and sucked America into another Middle East military quagmire without an endgame. We now also know that weakening al-Assad via the Shaheen-Obama Syria bombing war would have strengthened ISIS. Further, Jeanne Shaheen’s vote for this war sends a message to the world's despots that it is acceptable to starve and bomb your own citizens using conventional means, just so long as chemical weapons are not used.”